Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

Draft

02/25/2013

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's decision to lift the ban on
women in combat opens the door for a change in the law that compels only
men 18-25 to register for a military draft, according to legal experts
and military historians.

Never before has the country drafted women into military service, and
neither the administration nor Congress is in a hurry to make them
register for a future call-up.

But, legally, they may have no other choice.

Now that front-line infantry, armor, artillery and special operations
jobs are open to female volunteers who can meet the physical
requirements, it will be difficult for anyone to make a persuasive
argument that women should continue to be exempt from registration, said Diane Mazur, a law professor at the University of Floria and a former Air Force officer.

“They're going to have to show that excluding women from the draft
actually improves military readiness,” Mazur said. “I just don't see how
you can make that argument.”

Groups that backed the end of the ban on women in combat also support
including women in draft registration as a matter of basic citizenship.

Women should have the same civic obligations as men, said Greg Jacob, a former Marine Corps officer and policy director for the Service Women's Action Network. “We see registration as another step forward in terms of equality and fairness,” Jacob said.

Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., who heads the House Armed Services Committee, hasn't made up his mind. McKeon said through a spokesman that he's awaiting a Defense Department report due in the coming weeks that will assess the legal impact of lifting the ban on women in combat on draft registration.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, is doing the very same thing.

“The Department (of Defense) is currently undergoing a lengthy and
thoughtful process to provide guidance on the details of the new policy
lifting the direct ground combat exclusion rule for the 200,000-plus
women who bravely serve our nation in the military,” he said. “I look
forward to studying those results to understand if any additional policy
changes need to be made.”

A poll by Quinnipiac University
found that American voters firmly oppose a return to conscription.
Also, adding women to the mix doesn't appear to be a high priority for a
battle-weary nation nearing the end of more than a decade of war.